The Will to Battle

by Ada Palmer

A political SF epic of extraordinary audacity.
The long years of near-utopia have come to an abrupt end.
Peace and order are now figments of the past. Corruption, deception, and insurgency hum within the once steadfast leadership of the Hives, nations without fixed location.
The heartbreaking truth is that for decades, even centuries, the leaders of the great Hives bought the A political SF epic of extraordinary audacity.
The long years of near-utopia have come to an abrupt end.
...

The Will to Battle Reviews

Sherwood SmithDec 20, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

JulieDec 06, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

MikeJan 02, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

First book of 2018!
I loved the first two books of this tetralogy; though there were many flaws, the great, wonderful, and magnificent outweighed the flaws. But this time, I think the flaws won the day. The "Dear reader" became too annoying. Thomas Hobbes was an important presence i...

OdoNov 28, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

NilsJul 06, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

PearlJan 25, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Jo WaltonDec 21, 2016

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

BjÃ¸rnar TuftinFeb 04, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

BradleyDec 05, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

JulieJul 03, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

First book of 2018!
I loved the first two books of this tetralogy; though there were many flaws, the great, wonderful, and magnificent outweighed the flaws. But this time, I think the flaws won the day. The "Dear reader" became too annoying. Thomas Hobbes was an important presence i...

Too Like The Lightning showed us one of science fiction's most alluring futures; Seven Surrenders played Jenga with it. And The Will To Battle covers months, but they all equate to that moment of indrawn breath as you can see the whole thing is about to come crashing down, but don't ye...

This has been an amazing, original trilogy, nothing else like this exists that I've come across. I enjoyed this very slightly less than its predecessors. We never meet any normal people, it's all about the rulers, but it seems unlikely that the general population of a future which if n...

This book series is super ambitious, but it keeps paying off. Ada Palmer commits 100% to her characters and the world that she's built, so that even when things are super weird, they feel like they fit. Nothing is shoehorned in ? the story is constructed around the important elements...

The story of this Earth 500 years into the future continues, and is told just as skilfully than in the first two books - same darkness and all, too. Perhaps some apprehension is creeping in as well now, watching the world and characters I grew attached to (sometimes despite myself) fra...

Alex SarllJul 12, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

First book of 2018!
I loved the first two books of this tetralogy; though there were many flaws, the great, wonderful, and magnificent outweighed the flaws. But this time, I think the flaws won the day. The "Dear reader" became too annoying. Thomas Hobbes was an important presence i...

Too Like The Lightning showed us one of science fiction's most alluring futures; Seven Surrenders played Jenga with it. And The Will To Battle covers months, but they all equate to that moment of indrawn breath as you can see the whole thing is about to come crashing down, but don't ye...

AlexFeb 06, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

Rob AdeyNov 16, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

First book of 2018!
I loved the first two books of this tetralogy; though there were many flaws, the great, wonderful, and magnificent outweighed the flaws. But this time, I think the flaws won the day. The "Dear reader" became too annoying. Thomas Hobbes was an important presence i...

Too Like The Lightning showed us one of science fiction's most alluring futures; Seven Surrenders played Jenga with it. And The Will To Battle covers months, but they all equate to that moment of indrawn breath as you can see the whole thing is about to come crashing down, but don't ye...

This has been an amazing, original trilogy, nothing else like this exists that I've come across. I enjoyed this very slightly less than its predecessors. We never meet any normal people, it's all about the rulers, but it seems unlikely that the general population of a future which if n...

StandbackJan 22, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

JessicaJan 15, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

AnnaSep 17, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

RuthAug 21, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

AkahaylaJan 14, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

CassandraMay 23, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

This series remains exceptional both in inciting serious contemplation and in terms of pure enjoyment. It is at heart a book of Big Ideas -- all character choices, plot twists, and world-building are in service to that, rather than (at times) a straight narrative -- and ambitious in it...

Loved loved loved The Will To Battle. Some broad impressions:
Book 2, Seven Surrenders, felt like something of a dip to me -- I feel like Too Like The Lightning set a bunch of dominoes up, and Seven Surrenders was rather straightforwardly watching them all fall -- but this is back t...

First book of 2018!
I loved the first two books of this tetralogy; though there were many flaws, the great, wonderful, and magnificent outweighed the flaws. But this time, I think the flaws won the day. The "Dear reader" became too annoying. Thomas Hobbes was an important presence i...

Too Like The Lightning showed us one of science fiction's most alluring futures; Seven Surrenders played Jenga with it. And The Will To Battle covers months, but they all equate to that moment of indrawn breath as you can see the whole thing is about to come crashing down, but don't ye...

This has been an amazing, original trilogy, nothing else like this exists that I've come across. I enjoyed this very slightly less than its predecessors. We never meet any normal people, it's all about the rulers, but it seems unlikely that the general population of a future which if n...

This book series is super ambitious, but it keeps paying off. Ada Palmer commits 100% to her characters and the world that she's built, so that even when things are super weird, they feel like they fit. Nothing is shoehorned in ? the story is constructed around the important elements...

Tzu-Mainn ChenFeb 08, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

Chris StarrJan 15, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

SwuunAug 26, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

Mind. Blown.
Again.
These books are not like anything else out there, and reading them is a ride and a half - the ultimate unreliable narrator, world-shaking events, twists and turns and meta-narrative (the book itself is an important plot point in the book and also the unreliabl...

ScottFeb 27, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

Maya ChhabraMar 10, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Me: I finished
Me: I can't really keysmash on a phone, so you'll just have to imagine it
Boyfriend: Heheh
Boyfriend: Cliffhanger for book 4?
Me: I don't think cliffhanger is the right word
Me: More, I am now lying in a smashed and broken heap at the base of the cliff
Or, wait, ...

Reviewed at my blog here: https://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.com/...
Ada Palmer?s fiction gets a lot of attention for its voice and ideas, but I think her greatest strength is actually characterization. The Will to Battle features a large ensemble cast and somehow manages to give al...

SarahJul 26, 2017

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

CharlieJan 21, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

KaneJan 11, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

GavinOct 03, 2018

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

Something keeps me reading this series despite the absolutely annoying writing style. the world that is created in this series is intriguing, and I am interested in it. However, the way it is presented through an egotistical narrator, or "chronicler", is annoying as hell and makes it v...

I haven't been able to shut up about these books to literally everyone who knows me.
And now they're over.... for now.
HMB while I go start Too Like the Lightning again. ...

"Terra Ignota" is a series best enjoyed once you accept the fact that there's no way in hell you can anticipate what's going to happen. Palmer slaps you in the face with grandeurs and philosophies and absurdities, until the sheer thickness and spread of ideas turns her novels into some...

The scope, imagination, complexity, and beauty of Ada Palmer's writing continues to blow my mind. There are no other books like these books. I have no coherent review to articulate here, other than to say everyone should read the Terra Ignota series and that I am desperately excited fo...

Update, later the same day:
I think I'm gonna nominate this one for Hugo. It keeps getting better on reflection. :)
Original Review:
I took my time and savored this one. It deserves it. And more.
Ada Palmer has made a world worth luxuriating in, and far from resting on the Gr...

It made me hyperventilate on a train. This series just gets better and better.
...

I?ve been thinking about how to review this book for a couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that I can?t review its events without massive spoilers, and even then, those won?t convey the impact to someone who hasn?t read the two previous books.
So I?m going to t...

Ockham Prospero Saneer pleads Terra Ignota, I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. This sets the tone for the entire book.
I know there are at least a few of you interested in this book and whether or not the end feels like we've only been given half a book...

Author: Welcome back, dear reader! Did you return for the consistent brilliance that my cast has been putting out in their every performance?
Me: Not necessarily?I?ve got a nagging question that won?t let me quit this play.
Author (asks with keenness and curiosity): What is it?...

Ada Palmer has the skills to pay the bills, and with her new book she's packing a full clip, has a 455 under the hood and a full tank of high-octane racing fuel.
This is the third book in the Terra Ignota trilogy, and damn, it?s good! Palmer keeps the tension running at eye-wateri...

4.5/5.0 ...

This is a magnificent series! It has glorious prose, spectacular world-building, amazing intrigue and ... It's so good that I feel bad for not liking it. But fact is just don't. Yes, it's glorious and intricate and imaginative, to me this book was still a slog.
I'm not even sure what ...

After the constitutive excellent of the first two of the series, I felt this novel falls a little flat. While in the previous iterations, the plot has felt honed and in a momentous direction, here the story seems to meander around, with only occasional larger events stitching it all to...

The first book in the Terra Ignota series, Too Like the Lightning, was magnificent. It left me deliciously bewildered at every turn, with revelation after revelation illuminating new aspects of the world to me, turning my assumptions on their heads with no warning. This being the third...

3.5 stars this time, but rounded up per usual for Ada Palmer?s sheer ambition.
So, it turns out that waiting over a year between these books is a terrible idea! I?d forgotten who did what, why (BLANKITY BLANK) was in prison, and what were the latest double-triple-crossings, etc....

It?s fair to say that the Terra Ignota series continues to be demanding and rewarding. Mycroft the narrator, a convicted murderer, is writing a chronicle of events in 2454 in the style of the Enlightenment, while holding down eight jobs and suffering a psychological breakdown. The na...

Another good read, but compared to the previous two this one FELT longer. Maybe because of the endless court proceedings and descriptions of god knows how many philosophers.
Usually I enjoy books that speak about the law and politics in detail but this book was FILLED with it and i...

I feel conflicted about this book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't. There were some amazing moments that gave me hope that eventually, things would turn around but they never did. And those moments were just not enough to redeem the novel as a whole.
Palmer writes wha...

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